Fourteen industries where wet, salty or acidic service would destroy a carbon steel wall
and where a solid alloy wall would cost more than the project can carry. For each one,
the configuration we would recommend.
If the corrosion is coming from the process side, clad plate and clad pipe give you
alloy performance at steel cost. If the corrosion is coming from the outside —
salt spray, soil, marine atmosphere — the answer is usually a different finish,
a coating or a higher alloy carrier, not more cladding. Tell us which side is doing
the corroding and we will point you at the right configuration.
By industry
Fourteen service environments
1 · Petrochemical & refining
Vacuum tower overheads, hydrotreater and sour-water columns, amine regenerators and
caustic service. The process side needs alloy; the pressure shell does not. Clad plate
lets a vessel be designed to the same wall thickness as carbon steel while the wetted
surface stays resistant to naphthenic acid, H₂S and chloride salts.
Typical: 316L, 317L, 825, C-276 cladding on SA516 Gr.70 or Q345R
Clad plate & headsClad pipeAlloy tube
2 · Oil & gas gathering
Wet CO₂ and H₂S in gathering lines, flowlines and trunk lines corrode carbon steel
from the inside at a rate that requires inhibitors, frequent pigging or replacement.
A metallurgically bonded clad line removes the corrosion allowance entirely and keeps
the pressure rating of the carrier steel.
Typical: 316L, 2205, 625 liner in API 5L X52–X70
Clad pipeBends & fittingsPrefabricated spools
3 · Offshore & subsea
Seawater at elevated temperature defeats 316L through chloride stress corrosion cracking,
and weight drives installation cost. Super duplex and nickel-alloy clad line pipe solves
both at once: cracking immunity, higher yield strength, and a wall that does not have to
be solid alloy.
Typical: 2507, Zeron 100, 625 or C-276 liner; DNV-OS-F101
Clad pipeRiser sectionsSeawater systems
4 · Desalination & seawater
High-pressure brine piping, reverse-osmosis seawater headers, evaporator shells and
brine heaters. Chloride pitting and crevice corrosion make 316L a two-season material
here. Duplex 2205 handles ambient seawater; 2507 covers the high-temperature brine stages.
Typical: 2205, 2507 cladding and solid duplex pipe
Clad plateClad pipeDuplex tube
5 · Chemical & fertiliser
Sulphuric and phosphoric acid duty, ammonium nitrate solution tanks, evaporator bodies
and acid coolers. These are the environments that justify 904L, 825 or C-276 —
and the ones where cladding pays back fastest, because the alloy being saved is the
most expensive one in the catalogue.
Typical: 904L, 825, C-276, 254SMO cladding
Clad plateClad pipeNickel alloy plate
6 · Food, beverage & sugar
Juice and syrup tanks, evaporators, crystallisers, molasses storage and CIP circuits.
Sugar processing is particularly aggressive to carbon steel, and hygiene rules out any
coating that could flake into product. Clad plate gives a genuine stainless bore with
no rust, no metallic taste and no coating to fail.
Typical: 304, 304L, 316L cladding on Q235B or A516
Clad plateTanks & vessels2B / BA finishes
7 · Pharmaceutical & biotech
Reactors, fermenters, WFI storage and clean steam systems. What matters here is a
smooth, cleanable, corrosion-free contact surface with full traceability —
which is why 316L, BA or electropolished finishes and EN 10204 3.1 certificates are
the standard request.
Typical: 316L clad plate, 316L plate and tube, BA finish
Clad plate316L tubeFull traceability
8 · Pulp & paper
Digesters, bleach plant washers, chlorine dioxide stages and black liquor handling.
Chloride and chlorate duty in the bleach line is where 317L, 904L and duplex grades
displace 316L, and where large vessel shells make cladding the economical answer.
Typical: 317L, 904L, 2205, 254SMO cladding
Clad plateDigester shellsDuplex pipe
9 · Power generation & FGD
Flue-gas desulphurisation absorbers, ducting, stack liners, chimney dampers and
condenser water boxes. Wet SO₂ with chlorides is aggressive to everything except
the higher alloys, and these are large, lightly loaded structures — exactly the
case where cladding beats solid alloy on cost by a wide margin.
Typical: 316L, 2205, C-276, 625 cladding
Clad plateDuctingAbsorber shells
10 · Water & wastewater
Municipal water tanks, clarifiers, sludge digesters and sewerage headworks. Sulphate-reducing
bacteria in sewage generate H₂S that destroys the crown of a carbon steel tank in a
few years. A 316L or duplex clad crown and shell ends the maintenance cycle.
Typical: 316L, 2205, 2304 cladding
Clad plateTank shellsStainless pipe
11 · Marine & shipbuilding
Ballast water treatment systems, scrubber towers, seawater cooling lines, cargo tank
coatings' replacement and deck drainage. Constant salt spray and immersion. Duplex and
super duplex are the default; nickel alloys take over in scrubber effluent lines.
Typical: 2205, 2507, 625; class society approvals
Clad pipeDuplex plateFittings
12 · Mining & mineral processing
Slurry transport, tailings lines, thickener overflow and acid leach circuits. Abrasion
and corrosion arrive together, which is what a clad or composite pipe with a
wear-resistant or corrosion-resistant bore is designed for. Service life several times
that of carbon steel is routine.
Typical: Cr26 wear alloy, 316L, 2205 liner in Q235B pipe
Clad pipeWear plateBends
13 · Architecture, elevator & interiors
Cladding panels, elevator doors and interiors, façade louvers, column covers and
feature walls. A genuine stainless face in hairline, mirror, embossed or PVD colour
over a structural steel core — lighter, stiffer and cheaper than solid stainless
of the same rigidity, and available double-sided and perfectly flat.
A newer service with the same logic. Hydrogen embrittlement limits the base steel
grade, while CO₂-rich and amine environments attack the bore — so the
specification tends towards a lower-strength, embrittlement-resistant carrier with a
316L or nickel-alloy liner, and often a hardness-controlled weld.
Typical: 316L, 825 or 625 liner in L245–L450 carrier
Clad pipeClad plateProject-specific
Regional focus
Designed for the Thai and ASEAN climate
High humidity, monsoon rain, coastal salt spray and year-round temperatures above
30 °C. These are the conditions that turn a specification that works in
northern Europe into a maintenance problem in Rayong or Laem Chabang.
01
Passivate before you ship
Fabrication leaves free iron on the surface. Acid passivation restores the passive film so the material starts its service life already protected, rather than corroding from the first rainfall.
02
Moisture-barrier export packing
VCI film, desiccant and sealed crating for the sea voyage. Condensation in a container crossing the tropics is one of the most common causes of white rust on arrival.
03
Duplex where chlorides are elevated
Ambient temperatures in the Gulf of Thailand keep chloride stress corrosion cracking within reach of 316L in concentrated brine. 2205 removes the risk for a modest premium.
Recommended for Thai projects
Coastal & marine structures2205 / 316L
Food, beverage & sugar mills304L / 316L
Petrochemical estate piping316L / 825
Seawater & desalination2205 / 2507
Elevator & interior panels304, No.4 / PVD
Water & wastewater tanks316L / 2205
FGD & power plant ducting316L / C-276
Shipping to Bangkok, Laem Chabang, Songkhla and other ASEAN ports on FOB or CIF terms.
Form E / RCEP certificates of origin available.
At a glance
Clad or solid alloy?
A blunt guide. Cladding is not always the answer, and we will tell you when it is not.
Situation
Best answer
Reason
Large flat or cylindrical surfaces, alloy on one side
Clad plate
Maximum alloy saving; fabrication is unchanged from carbon steel.
Long pipe runs, medium to large diameter
Clad pipe
Solid alloy becomes scarce and expensive above DN600; clad pipe does not.
High pressure with corrosion on the bore only
Metallurgically bonded clad pipe
The liner is counted in the pressure design, so the wall is not wasted.
Corrosion on both sides, or two-sided appearance
Double-sided clad plate
Symmetrical construction, alloy on both faces, minimal distortion.
Small components, valves, pumps, fasteners
Solid stainless or alloy bar
Too small for cladding to make sense; buy the grade you need.
Low-pressure, low-consequence water lines
Cement-lined or coated carbon steel
No reason to pay for alloy performance you will never stress.
Corrosion coming from outside, not inside
Coating, wrapping or cathodic protection
Cladding protects the wrong surface.
Your application
Describe the duty, and we will spec the material.
Medium, chloride level, temperature, pressure and quantity. That is enough for us to
recommend the configuration, the grade and the finish — and to tell you honestly
if a simpler material would do the job.
In service · process plant
